Favia tissue receding

[gd1985]

So I've noticed my dragon soul favia is starting to receed.

After getting 2 small sps frags & them not doing too good I was advised to increase nutrients in the tank. As I'm getting brown algae on the sand during the day the low nutrients won't be helping that. Its not stringy/bubbles, just a dust.

My tank was running 0 NO3 & PO4 so I've increased feeding & added 5 anthias recently, that's got the NO3 to 5 & PO4 to 0.1 over a couple of weeks.

Alk is at 8.4
Mag 1130
Cal 400

I know the Mag looks a bit low, it's stabilised at that for a while now.

The plating montipora has completely stripped, my trumpet coral is all but gone & now I've noticed my favia taking a hit over last 2 days. The chalice, torch & blasto are all fine.

The pic with the blues is from a couple weeks back. As you can see the top right hand side is all white & the new eyes developing at the bottom have near enough gone.

Any idea what it could be? I've got hermits but they don't bother with the coral, added some troch snails a few weeks back but again, they don't go near them.

 

[A Young Reefer]

other parameters?
like salinity?

 

[gd1985]

other parameters?
like salinity?

Don't have a salinity kit.

I'm taking a sample into my lfs tomorrow for that & ph

 

[A Young Reefer]

Don't have a salinity kit.

I'm taking a sample into my lfs tomorrow for that & ph

sounds good

 

[MaxTremors]

Don't have a salinity kit.

I'm taking a sample into my lfs tomorrow for that & ph

You don’t have a refractometer or even a hydrometer? That’d be the first place I’d look. Buy a refractometer when you’re at the LFS, they’re fairly inexpensive ($20-$30, also get some calibration fluid). All your other parameters look okay if they are stable (try to keep nutrients fairly stable), so unless you’re using tap water or spraying chemicals around the tank, that’d be my first guess. You need to keep your salinity between 1.024 and 1.026 (34-35ppm) and keep it stable (either top off, get a lid, or get an ATO). Also, make sure you’re topping off with RODI. Also, how old is your tank and what kind of lighting?

 

[gd1985]

You don’t have a refractometer or even a hydrometer? That’d be the first place I’d look. Buy a refractometer when you’re at the LFS, they’re fairly inexpensive ($20-$30, also get some calibration fluid). All your other parameters look okay if they are stable (try to keep nutrients fairly stable), so unless you’re using tap water or spraying chemicals around the tank, that’d be my first guess. You need to keep your salinity between 1.024 and 1.026 (34-35ppm) and keep it stable (either top off, get a lid, or get an ATO). Also, make sure you’re topping off with RODI. Also, how old is your tank and what kind of lighting?

I've got an ATO set up with a barrel of RODI, go through a full 25L jerry van per week.

Nothing has been sprayed by the tank & the only thing added is a small dose of mag & alk when they drop slightly. Apart from the NO3 & PO4 increasing over 2 weeks I mentioned, all params have stayed the same for months.

Tank is only 8 months old, however, its been running properly since September.

I ended up going fallow a few weeks after set up in April as my initial batch of livestock got ich. The livestock that survived (x2 clowns, x2 chromis, coral beauty & Chalk goby) got pulled & treated in QT for 4 months then reintroduced in September. Added 1st corals in October with a new batch of fish (5 anthias) added 2 weeks ago. None of the fish or hermits go near the coral.

 

[gd1985]

Lighting is x2 32hd hydra set up as below

 

[gd1985]

So my salinity is a tad low, 1.024 compared to the water in the store (1.026).

I got the hanna test kits for nitrate & phosphate. After a 0.0 reading yesterday the PO4 is showing 0.07 today with NO3 at 7.5.

I've started dosing to get my Mg above 1200 again over the next 2 weeks.

 

[Shirak]

Up your salinity then check Ca and Mg again before dosing. Increasing salinity will increase Ca and Mg as well. I would be shooting for 450ppm Ca and 1400 Mg. You could try target feeding the coral at night too since your nitrate is still on the low side.